Page 41 of Ties of Starlight

When was she ever going to justify herself?

“Why would I kill him for that matter?” Nyrunn scoffed. “As much as I might have wanted to over the last year, I thought we needed him for this! Why would I continue to weaken our people and put them at risk by killing the Cometa Couple?”

“Because I—” Idonea cut herself off. “I don’t know!”

“Why won’t you believe me when I tell you nothing happened to him? There was no blood, no sign of struggle. What else could that mean?”

Why wouldn’t she accept that he’d abandoned her?

“He didn’t leave me!” Idonea’s voice ripped through the air, and her fury rushed into him, unbridled. She stepped forward. “He would never do that. I know he wouldn’t. I know him, my heart and my soul know him completely; that’s why I won’t let you convince me otherwise just because you’re jealous!”

There was nothing Nyrunn could say to convince her, was there?

Idonea gritted her teeth, chest heaving with every breath as her voice lowered to a whisper. “He loves me. You just think you own me.”

Nyrunn knew of only one thing that might actually get her to see things for what they really were.

Maybe then she’d see who actually loved her.

“Fine. Keep your secrets. I know you’re hiding something from me. But I’m done. You can have mine.” He pulled out the letter and held it up in the air. “You want to know how I’m certain Olaug ran away and is alive out there? It’s all right there in his own hand.”

He threw it and it fluttered to the ground and it made him sick the way she threw herself to her knees, ignoring the scrapes on her hands in order to get it. She fumbled with the paper as she knelt on the ground, unfolding it to read what Olaug wrote.

He watched as her lips parted, tears filling her eyes again, hands rattling the paper.

Giving an already fragile, struggling young woman a letter that would shatter her?

He stepped out of the tent right before her first sob tore through the air and the devastation came through the bond. He staggered the second it hit. His hand clutched his own heart as he grabbed the nearest column and crashed against it.

He couldn’t breathe. His heart was shredding second by second. He’d never felt anything like this. The heartbreak he’d thought he’d felt when he discovered how Idonea despised him was nothing compared to this.

Nyrunn sank to his knees. Was he dying?

He wished he was dying.

This… This was what Idonea was feeling? And it was his fault.

He wasn’t the hero in this after all.

Maybe there were none.

Chapter 15

There is something wrong with that girl.

Inga couldn't believe how well this life was going. She'd been waiting and waiting ever since she'd married Olvir for something to go wrong. For her to mess it up again. For an enemy to come in and kill them.

But so far, she'd been perfect. And now with the Heava Dance complete without a hitch, they were halfway there. Maybe this would be the time it finally stopped. Maybe this would be her last life.

She finished the glass in her hand and handed it off to the closest servant. When she looked up, her eyes traveled across the crowd and landed on Captain Bror. She lifted her chin, banishing the shiver that threatened to race down her spine at his cold, sharp look.

She could not fathom what she'd done to make him despise her so much, other than the fact that she had human blood, which their people needed. But he'd always looked at her like that, like she was something he so desperately wanted to have beneath his boot.

She supposed the greatest crime she’d committed wasgoing and being selected as Gytha’s chosen so she’d no longer be his favorite maid to harass and humiliate. Still, he was King Hrorr’s brother, and the last thing she needed to do was provoke either of them.

So, she turned on her heel and decided to just wait in her tent for Olvir to finish socializing for the night and come join her.

She looked over her shoulder to see Bror was slowly following her, gaze locked onto her, and she picked up her pace until she came flying into the tent.

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